DASO: Two Family Dollar employees shot at during robbery

One man has been jailed after deputies said he shot at two employees of a Vado store during a robbery on Oct. 28, according to the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office. 

Ruben Trujillo, 37, faces criminal charges of armed robbery, aggravated burglary, aggravated assault and criminal property damage. He remains in jail as of the writing of this article. 

DASO announced the arrest in a news release sent to local media on Oct. 30 after Trujillo was arrested. 

According to an affidavit outlining deputies’ case against Trujillo, most of the robbery was caught on camera and witnessed by two Family Dollar employees near the Vado Drive (Highway 227) and Highway 478 intersection. 

Deputies said the incident began as the two employees were closing up. They said a man wearing a grey hoodie, blue jeans and black mask and armed with a handgun forced his way into the locked store by bashing in the glass with a rock. 

The two employees fled into an office as the man fired a round in their direction. One of the employees told police she could hear the bullet ring past her head as both hid under a table for cover. 

The store security camera footage caught the man taking cash as well as a black box from underneath the cash register. The same footage also showed the man had a tattoo of the number five on his neck and a slight limp. 

Deputies said they reviewed a collection of jail inmate photos until landing on Trujillo’s photo. There, they noticed he had a neck tattoo of “575.”

According to the affidavit, Trujillo was detained on Oct. 30 but declined to speak to police. However, deputies noted in the affidavit that Trujillo had a similar limp to that of the man in the video.  

Deputies also searched his home and vehicle, according to the affidavit, and found cash, a .45-caliber Hi-Point handgun and clothing matching that of the robber. 

However, the affidavit states at this point that security camera footage was captured from a Dollar General, not a Family Dollar. There is no Dollar General store in the area where the robbery occurred. 

Additionally, DASO said in the news release announcing the arrest that they’d collected “evidence of other robberies which had taken place in the City of Las Cruces days earlier.” It’s unclear from the affidavit what that evidence was and, as of this article’s publication, there have been no additional charges filed.

Court records state that prosecutors have requested a judge to hold Trujillo jail without bond. Their request sends the case to the 3^rd Judicial District Court for a pretrial detention hearing.

Prosecutors must argue that Trujillo is a danger to the community and that no conditions of release, like an ankle monitor or a cash bond, could protect the community. That hearing did not have a set date as of this article's writing.

The Las Cruces Bulletin attempted to contact an attorney for Trujillo, but none had been listed by the time this article was written.